Website Sustainability

Overview This project aims to move the MAGIC Mathematics lecture recordings from the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years from the at risk CREW repository to the MAGIC website, with a backup held in the JORUM repository service. The CREW repository can no longer be used for this purpose as it is currently being held on development servers which are to be repurposed for further development projects. Additionally, the staff maintaining these servers are software engineers who are concentrating on other work, and so are only maintaining the servers and service on a best-efforts basis. The MAGIC lecture recordings are a valuable resource of around 900 postgraduate mathematics lectures which are usable by students who were unable to attend the lectures, or who wish to review past material, and also by students at institutions out with MAGIC, who would not otherwise be able to see the lectures. In addition, they can be used by the lecturers themselves to review their lecture style...

overview The RDInfo Project is aimed at transitioning the world-class RDInfo knowledgebase from a vulnerable Department of Health (DH), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) grant supported position into a sustainable institutionally supported model. This involves transfer of the current web platform into the Leeds Information Systems Services (ISS) infrastructure from a private host site and the creation of a sustainable subscription based service. The business model is based on the assumption that access to the service if fully funded through partners can be made free to . ac.uk  (University of Leeds funded) and . nhs.uk  (DH/NIHR funded) registered users but on a paid subscription basis for other users and institutions both National and International. The JISC funding is being sought to provide for the technical transition and will form part of a portfolio of funding from major sponsors including the University of Leeds (UoL), DH, Association of Medical Research C...

Extract from:  Computer scientists grapple with how to manage the digital legacy of the departed | Technology | Science News : Clearly it’s important for people to consider who will have access and control over their digital data when the time comes. But this focus on privacy and access ignores the emotional significance of a loved one’s digital legacy. 'via Blog this'

As a break from the usual posts here is a question: Can Google App Engine be an alternative way to produce sustainable web solutions? I would be interest to read your comments on this. Could static content be transfered across and extra interactivity missing from some of the other solutions in this blog be added through programming/scripting?

Previously I looked at using other tools    to host sites sustainably (or even free)  such as:  Dropbox  (see: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/alternative-hosting-approach-1-dropbox.html )  Google Sites (see: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/google-sites-for-sustainability-week-3.html  ) Hosting options: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/hosting-how-to-get-it-out-there-for.html Free tools: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-best-free-tools-for-website.html Amazon S3 (see: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/thoughts-about-using-amazon-s3.html ) In this post I look at a real web site being moved to being hosted on google Drive as a case study of moving sites that need preserving on to Google Drive as a hosting option. 1. First step is to capture the static HTML files. We need to copy all the files we want, this has been discussed previous see ...

Should all the web resources produced during a publicly funded project be required to store them sustainably? By sustainably I mean that: Hosting option should keep the resource on-line after the money for the project or organisation is no longer available; Ownership the resources can be transferred easily; Content should be relatively easily transferred either to other sites or archived in an accessible way. I think the answer is yes and possibly it should be part of the funding criteria. We are talking about using a scarce resource public money, to get the best value for that money if a resource has been developed using that money it should be available for those who paid for it. If a resource was worth investing in, why wouldn't it be worth something later. The nature of the resource may change with time, possible going from a resource about current activity to be a resource of historic interest. A JISC funded project " Sustaining "At Risk" On...

Sites like The East Midlands Knowledge Network (EMKN) site are worth saving for many reasons (including but certainly not exclusively: return on the investment both in terms of money and time; and as an information source). The site " The Universities of the East Midlands contain an enormous wealth of knowledge and expertise but it’s not always easy to navigate to the sources of support that could make a real difference to your business. The East Midlands Knowledge Network (EMKN) website will help guide you to the broad range of services that are available to help grow and develop your company ." EMKN (2011) The 'rescued' sites can also be later be taken over by others at a future date or taken as a starting for similar site. Perhaps one that is not immediately clear is their value in their own right as a record. Even if these sites are never added to, maintaining them means potentially a snapshot of the activities of partnerships, issues, the kind of activitie...

A Google Site has been started at  site  as in Figure 1. Figure 1 Starting Page One of the areas that has been focussed on setting up the services menu as can be seen  https://sites.google.com/site/emknorg/services  at the moment the image links to pages with their content missing. Figure 2 Starting page Problems found and addressed. Google Sites is restrictive on where certain features can be placed, such as the main image on this page. The image on this page had be handled a little differently as well.  It had to have it's own Google Gadget as an xml file and managed to recreate the colourful menu. It looks almost exactly the same as the original one. There was an initially a problem with the links but this  was fixed by adding  target="_parent"  to every link. An area that is being worked on curent is the interactive map shown in figure 1 at the moment only a portion is being used. This work has been supported by fu...

East Midlands Knowledge Network (EMKN) is an online resource which is currently at risk, due to the demise of regional development agencies, the imminent closure of the company upon whose server it sits and the uncertain future of the East Midlands Universities Association (EMUA), who created the resource. However the information held on within the site (technologies, business services and facilities within EMUA’s institutions is valuable. Site statistics indicate that EMKN is well used in the region, considering the small target market (BLAs) and attracts significant interest from further afield. Feedback from users has been very favourable, and the site is valued by both member HEIs and brokers (see attached letters of support). EMKN is therefore ‘at risk’ and the issues are these •EMKN brings together valuable resources that will promote and assist business community interaction, in line with government policy both on HE-business engagement and on-line information...